Newness and Growth.

Good Morning.



I am slowly waking, out of the haze of sleep and sipping my cup o' nectar aka: brewed coffee black with usually stevia but today it's organic blue agave nectar. :D. Gotta change it up and keep it interesting.



I have full intentions to start posting a lot more frequently. Sometimes life just gets so hectic it's hard to have the energy to be introspective and hammer out a blog post but I am going to give it my bloggy loving best and try and post AT LEAST once a week. I feel that if you don't document stuff will just get lost in the span of time. And I want to remember.



So what's been going on in the Lovely Chaos lately you ask? Well...



My best friend Amanda just gave birth to her beautiful baby girl!

Peyton Sawyer came into the world on August 22 2010 at 7:15 p.m

These are some of the photos that were taken at the birth and I took them and edited and enhanced them for her as a gift. Isn't she beautiful? It's so bittersweet. I am so happy for her and her precious new addition, but at the same time there is a feeling of longing and sadness because I know that Layla will never be that tiny ever again. It just reminds me how fleeting life is. And how every single moment should be cherished. I am doing my best to absorb all the adorable goodness that Layla is at this age. She is so curious and into everything. Every morning that I come to pick her up from her crib she pulls up to standing, beams at me and says "Hey!". At almost 13 months she has such an extensive vocabulary. Saying about 16 words so far, I think is a great accomplishment for a baby her age.

Words (or attempts at words) that Layla knows so far:

1. Mama
2. Dada
3. Nana
4. Papa
5. Baby
6. Kitty
7. Pretty
8. Cookie
9. No No (lol.)
10. Hey
11. Bye
12. Nee-Nee (her name for my sister Jenny)
13. Ni (her name for my nephew Nick)
14. BoBo (her stuffed monkey she sleeps with every night...she named him :D)
15. Baba (bottle)
16. bite bite (when she wants to eat)

Words that she's working on but hasn't quite mastered yet lol...

17. Kiss Kiss
18. Duck (she says "Du"... but no ck)
19. Shoes ( she says "Sheesh..lol)
20. Book ( she says "Bu" I think she's working around the "K" sound)
21. Hot (she says "Ha" Every morning when I am having my morning coffee, whenever she's near me, she tries to stick her fingers in my cup, and I am trying to tell her "HOT", I have even touched her little fingers to the side of the mug (no it was not warm enough to burn her), and said HOT. And she'll point her finger at the cup and shake her head "no no".

I was visiting Amanda and Peyton yesterday and just enjoying watching her with her new little one, thinking how much Layla has grown and changed in a year. It's truly remarkable. I remember my first few days at home with her and wondering if I would ever get any sleep ever again, (dramatic I know...) and now Layla is sleeping through the night, mostly, and feeding herself almost exclusively, amusing herself flipping through the pages of her favorite books, pulling up to standing and just growing and changing every single day.

My husband has been in Germany for the last few weeks on a training mission, and I know he's chomping at the bit to get back home. He was teary eyed when he left this time, although he's had to do short 2 week deployments since Layla has been born before. He is not a cryer. I have seen him cry 5 times in the last almost 8 years that we have been together and that included when his grandmother died, when Layla was born, and when we separated for a short while. He held her, dressed in his uniform, telling her "Daddy loves you..." And I could tell he was hurting. He told me "It's harder this time...she's actually going to be aware that I am not here now." He kissed her and handed her to me to go put her down for her nap and turned away and I could see tears in his eyes. I know he feels like he's going to miss so many little moments with her that he can't ever get back. But I do my best to capture them, whether they be on camera, in a photo or writing them down. That is just the price you pay for service to your country.

We have about 1 week left until he'll be on his way home and I am excited! I'm gonna be working to get the house in order before he gets here. Everything kind of borders on chaos when he's gone. I'm lucky if I make it to the end of the day without baby food in my hair, tripping over books and toys, and got a load of laundry done.

Ah what a beautiful life :)
I wouldn't trade it for the world.